Siham A. Awada Jaafar

President

Raj Kutty

Vice President

Raj Kutty, director of Enterprise Solutions for NewportGlobal Technologies, Inc., specializes in Enterprise Technology management and consulting, strategic business planning, and program and project management for clients in a variety of industries worldwide.

Suresh Pillai

Treasurer

Suresh Pillai, a finance executive with Ford Motor Company, has served on the WCDRC board since 2013. He currently works in Securitizations Operations in Ford’s Global Treasury Organization. Prior to becoming a finance professional, he spent several years as a mechanical engineer with a focus on computer aided design.

John M. Sier

Trustee

John Sier, an attorney for Kitch Drutchas Wagner Valitutti & Sherbrook, P.C., concentrates his practice in dispute avoidance and resolution of commercial, health care and construction contract issues as well as counseling clients on cyber risk exposure.

Roland Samaroo

Trustee

Roland Samaroo is a psychologist, practicing individual and group therapy and psychological crisis intervention. He is a member of a Traumatic Incident Stress Management Team and was previously the executive director of an organization serving individuals with developmental and mental disabilities.

Kathleen M. McCarthy

Trustee

Kathleen McCarthy, is a Presiding Judge on the Wayne County Family Court Bench, and has served on the Court since 2001. Judge McCarthy is also an adjunct professor, teaching Family Law and Law Firm Program courses at the University Detroit Mercy Law School since 2011.

David Robinson

Trustee

David Robinson is Commander of the Dearborn Police Department, serving as the number two executive. Since joining the department in 1989, following graduation from Michigan State University with a B.A. degree in Criminal Justice.

David Turfe

Trustee

David Turfe serves as District Court Judge for Dearborn Heights 20th District Court, first elected in 2006. He previously served as Dearborn Heights City Councilman, 2000-2001, and as Dearborn Heights Zoning Board Commissioner, 1998-2000.

Marifer Calleja

Trustee

Marifer Calleja recently joined the WCDRC board, bringing years of experience in bilingual/bicultural settings around quality of life issues applied to change management, education, outreach, and mass communications. She holds professional certifications in creative problem solving and in group facilitation.

Youseff Mosallam

Trustee

Youssef Mosallam, Ph.D., executive director of Student Achievement for Dearborn Public Schools, has 20 years of experience in education as a teacher and administrator. Mosallam is also an LEO adjunct professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a focus on Public Administration and working with English Language Learners.

The aunt had lost track of her nephew before his parents’ rights were terminated. When she discovered that he was eligible for adoption, and learned that his foster mother was refusing to adopt him, she filed a petition to adopt him. Around that time, the boy decided adoption by his foster mother would be okay, so she also petitioned for adoption. Both homes were approved, and Michigan Children’s Institute (MCI) was charged with choosing between the foster home where he had lived so long and the relative aunt with whom he had a relationship when he was younger.

During this process, the foster mom and aunt, who became engaged in a ‘competition’ for the boy, were quite critical of one another even though they had never met. The aunt was convinced that the foster mom didn’t really want him enough to adopt him, but had filed her petition out of spite only after she heard about the aunt’s intent. The foster mom wondered why the aunt hadn’t expressed interest earlier but decided to come forward in the eleventh hour when he was about to be adopted by his foster mom. The case was referred to mediation with MCI willing to accept any decision the foster mother and aunt made with the hope that the situation might improve enough that the child could have future contact with these two women who both cared about him.

The adoption worker and additional workers from two agencies attended the first meeting, along with the foster mother and aunt. There were three meetings before the case was resolved but between meetings, the boy met with his aunt and foster mother for dinner in a restaurant and again at his foster home. The aunt quickly realized that her nephew was happy, well cared for, and really wanted to stay in his foster home. Both the aunt and foster mother came to understand that the assumptions they had initially made about one another were not accurate and that each had good, loving reasons for their eleventh hour decisions to file adoption petitions.

By the second meeting, the aunt and foster mother were riding together to the mediation. By the third meeting, they had met with the boy and his therapist prior to the mediation, and the aunt had let him know that she would withdraw her petition, because she wanted to do what would make him happiest. She also made sure he understood that she was not turning her back on him and that she would always be available for him and would always consider him a member of her family too.

At the final mediation session, they made a good faith, non-enforceable agreement that it was in the child’s best interest to continue his relationship with his aunt and arranged a plan for scheduling for future visits. The aunt agreed to withdraw her petition, and he was adopted by his foster mother.

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At the conference, school staff heard many of the mother’s problems and fears related to her own health issues, lack of transportation, and safety concerns for her daughter that had resulted in the school absences. After discussing different options and the importance of the child’s school attendance, the principal was able to arrange for the student to receive a bus waiver and to offer the option of parenting counseling from a social service agency in partnership with WCDRC.

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At mediation, it was revealed the men had an altercation 10 years earlier, holding a grudge ever since. During mediation they were able to discuss past incidents and share that they were no longer the person they were ten years ago. Each apologized for their part in their troubled past. Additionally, they found out that each valued their family above all else. They Nothing, they said, was more important to them than caring for and protecting their families. They did not leave best friends but they left understanding that they had similar values and similar priorities. Without this mediation, one of the parties said, “The next time we met someone was probably going to get hurt or killed.”